Rite Aid will soon be much smaller as it works through a bankruptcy exit strategy with lenders.
According to a Bloomberg court record analysis, the drugstore chain has closed over 500 locations, roughly a quarter of the 2,000 stores it once operated before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2023.
Thus far, Rite Aid has closed over 60 New York stores, 101 in California, and 103 in Pennsylvania, the publication’s court documents found.
Rite Aid, which had pharmacies across 17 U.S. states when it filed for bankruptcy, has been closing underperforming locations in part due to its high debt, revenue decline, increased competition, and litigation surrounding the opioid crisis.
That’s all on top of the stiff competition from other drugstore chains, such as CVS, Amazon $AMZN, Walgreens $WBA, and Walmart $WMT.
Earlier this year, it sold its pharmacy benefit company Elixir for nearly $577 million. The sale was part of Rite Aid’s restructuring plan to reduce its debt.
In March 2023, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Rite Aid, accusing the chain of “knowingly filling hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances.”